1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for printing of documents on a plurality of devices in a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
A typical private data communication network such as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) may include one or more workstation computer and a network server computer. The private data communication network may also include one or more local imaging devices which receive print jobs from the workstation computers. The private data communication network may implement an intranet network using an Internet Protocol (IP) for transmission of data between devices in the private data communication network. When a user desires to print from the workstation computer to the local imaging devices, the user initiate a print request from the workstation computer. In response to the print request, a print driver hosted on the workstation computer may initiate the transmission of a print job to a local printer.
In some systems, the printer driver may initiate the transmission of separate print jobs to more than one of the local printers in the private data communication network. Although each of the local printers need not be identical devices (i.e., the same brand and model of printer), each of the local printers must typically be xe2x80x9clikexe2x80x9d devices that are within the same printer or printer/copier family. Each print job that is received at each local printer is typically queued into the local printers and printed from a queue accordingly.
The print jobs sent to the local printers may utilize the standard line printer daemon (LPD) protocol supported by the Internet Protocol (IP). However, other network printing protocols such as the Novell NDPS protocol are also typically used. Local printing protocols, such as the LPD protocol, are limited to transmitting print jobs to only those destinations in the Intranet network.
Additionally, these local printing protocols are typically limited for use among only xe2x80x9clikexe2x80x9d printers, that is, printers within the same family.
An embodiment of the present invention relates to a system and method for transmitting a print job from a process hosted on a client device in a first communication network to a plurality of devices using a single print request issued by the process. At least one of the devices is a local imaging device coupled as a node on the first communication network and at least one of the devices is a remote imaging device coupled to the first data communication network through a second communication network.